Kalyn M. Diederich, M.S.

Ph.D. Student & NSF GRFP Fellow
Grain Cropping Systems and Microbial Ecology Lab
Soils & Biogeochemistry Graduate Group 
Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources
University of California, Davis

Kalyn is originally from Fort Collins, Colorado, where she earned her B.S. in Soil and Crop Sciences with a minor in Organic Agriculture. After her education at CSU and her experiences serving as a student farm manager, interning on a diversified organic farm, and assisting with research at the USDA-ARS, Kalyn knew she wanted to pursue a graduate education in soil and agricultural science. In this pursuit, she moved to the Midwest where she received her Master’s degree in Agroecology and Soil Science in 2017 at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Kalyn’s research experience at UW-Madison exposed her to perennial grain crop development, which lent the opportunity to conduct research on two topics she is passionate about simultaneously — soil health and innovative agriculture. As of January 2018, Kalyn started her Ph.D. with the Lundy and Scow labs where she will be investigating whether the newly developed multipurpose perennial grain crop known as Kernza is a viable agronomic crop for the state of California. As she enters her second year of her Ph.D. here at UC Davis, she is thrilled to become more integrated into the campus community through her work as an ASI student External Advisory Board member and student mentor in the campus-based organization known as Girls Outdoor Adventure in Leadership and Science (GOALS).